97 Responses

What is not deterring stabbings is the failure of the criminal justice system to charge and prosecute a stabbing as attempted murder rather than an assault. The knowledge of a light sentence and the reputation gained in the street actually promote this type of crime as an alternative to shooting to settle a dispute. In either case the possession of a deadly weapon and use of it when the opportunity presents itself is the real problem. That mentality is what needs correction and the courts need to set the limits of acceptable conduct through application of law to its most strict standard.

I lived in Center Square for 5yrs until 2002 when the increasing rate of muggings started. What a shame such a great neighborhood is falling apart.
Such an easy solution. Police foot patrols.
When the police built the station in Arbor Hill guess what happened? All the crooks just started riding their bikes over to Center Sq to rob people.

These incidents should be a wake up call to Mayor Jennings. There is TOO LITTLE police presence in this city. I realize these are isolated incidents, but they seem to be happening more frequently. I have the utmost respect for the city’s PD, but would like to see more officers on a foot/bike/mounted patrol.

Yes i believe albany has a horrible crime problem no question asked. My boyfriend lives off of quail street and since hes moved in over the past year i have seen things i would have never even thought of but yet nothing is ever done about them, and the scary part is it could happen to anyone and its done with no care. Over the past yearon his street i have seen a stabbing where a guy ended up bleeding all over the street and passing out, i have seen a guy who was my bfs roommate wlk up to the corner store to just buy a drink and he was held at gunpoint on his birthday for his wallet cell phone etc, i have seen people being dragged outta there cars in the parking lot up the street, and i have also been affected personally my car more than once has been violated, people kicked in the front grill of the car and hit it.One night they had a group of people over and two people walking to get food at the corner store were chased by someone with a rainbow knife, Its ridiculous and up the street is a drug spot. And the sad spot is about the families on the street some dont have the money to move and are raising families and durring the day u see all the kids outside playing they dont know better or wat goes on , but then at night when dark hits the place goes to hell, for instance what if something was to happen to them, these people comitting the crimes dont care who they do it to or who their affecting, hence ive been affected my boyfriends been affected and his roommates no reasons just wrong spot at the wrong time, and all this over a period of a less than a year, and i cannot wait to his lease his up in october but something needs to be done bc it keeps gettin worse and worse, and untill something is done who knos whos gna be affected next, would u want ur kids to be affected, i mean people think its all the kids that cause this trouble and its a result of acholhol and drug abuse but its not, families and little kids and etc are all involved and a stop needs to be put to it NOW! This story is not an exaggeration at all just a breif summary of what ive witnessed over the past year just about, idk i never thought i would have witnessed it all, and esp its not even what u would imagine to be a bad spot. but something needs to be done to stop this now, bc its only gettin worse and people are starting at younger ages we see kids playing with toy guns all the time, its not right, there needs to be a stop now.

Anyone who does not believe Albany has a crime situation is in denial. I moved aaway from Albany 5 years ago due to the increase in violence I saw all around me. For the police to deny there is an issue, is truly ALARMING. Albany is in a crisis and it needs to be addressed- WHATEVER THEY ARE DOING IS NOT ENOUGH.
First thing that needs to go is the alarming amount of rehab facilities in the area. Although there are the 5 % of people who attend these facilites to get better, the unfortunate truth is that the remanider of the population is looking to use the system to get free housing and food- all while still using drugs.
Albany is considered a safe haven to take advantage of the states welfare system- we are making NYC a safer place b/c many of the addicts are now living here.

All it takes is a mere look at the city’s (Albany) population which has increased 10 fold with people from NYC migrating here over the last 6 years. The problem has been consistently growing while NYC crime is down Albany’s crime is up. There is a direct correlation.

You want to solve Albany’s crime problem, or at least a good quotient of it? Bulldoze Arbor Hill and everything within two blocks of the Henry Johnson Boulevard; arrest anyone that comes scurrying out and turn the land into Albany’s largest park. I’m not one to call for or support urban renewal, but that area has only worked to foment Albany’s crime problem for years, even since a police station and public safety building were built there. And now the cancer is spreading to other parts of the city.

I am for helping all people: But when you have these half way houses. The city mission, which by the way,have and still are housing rapist, robbers, and muderers. I say this because I lived down the street from the mission and have heard of the the crimes committed by some of the clients they service. It’s a shame that Albany has become the dumping ground for the ungratefuls and those that think they can go out here and rob, kill, and rape our law abiding citizens. The mayor needs to focus more on our streets. Than of building bars downtown. He pays to much attention to businesses than the citizens of Albany. When he said that crime was down he must have been referring to his block !

We use to go to downtown Albany after softball games…
stopped years ago. It’s a bad scene down there… hoods, gangs of drunks, violence and drugs etc. I’ve gone to my car a few times to find damage done to it, that someone did just for fun… newspaper vending machines slammed into the my door, vandalism. Imagine what could’ve happened if I’d have been walking up to my car and saw someone or a group doing it… I’d get stabbed or shot.
Where are Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton now…

First of all, everyone needs to stop using the words “the police” like they’re the problem or the cause of it. It’s such an ignorant way of looking at the situation. When I hear the words “the police”, I think of the police officers who do the job out on the street every day. They don’t make the laws. They’re not the ones who refuse to really prosecute these criminals like a certain DA whos name I don’t need to say. And they certainly aren’t the parents of these thugs who commit these violent crimes. Bottome line is….. All the money in the world can’t make this problem go away and the political “tough talk” dosen’t amount to anything. If people are raised by there parnets to be a certain way…. they’re going to be that way. It all starts at home. STOP blaming “the police”. Oh and btw… the State Police couldn’t do this job better in this city than the men and woman you have doing it now.

What I don’t understand is why it took over 10 mins into this whole incident for the cops to show up. At no point on a Friday/Saturday night should there not be police in that area of N.Pearl. Had the police gotten involved right away then maybe the whole person getting hit with the car and stabbings would not have occured.

If this is a problem for them then maybe like someone suggested earlier, the state police should be there.

I would like to see a more in-depth story on crime in Albany. There is no hard data in this story. We are left not knowing whether this weekend is indeed an anamoly, as the Albany Police Chief states, or whether the type of violence that occurred over the weekend is part of pattern. We need to know the amount and types of crime that are being committed over, say, the last year, with comparison to previous years.
Is crime up in some neighborhoods, down in others, stable in still others? Is the type of crime changing all over the city, in certain neighborhoods? Perhaps you have already done a story with this type of data? It just seems a bit irresponsible to write a story like this without more data-driven context. Maybe I’m just biased — I love the cultural and architecural richness of cities, not to mention the “green-ness” of living closer to work — but I think Albany is a lovely city.

Jon, I don’t care when the police did arrive or could’ve arrived, it’s the people that did the crime that are at fault. Those animals who did the crime should spend a lot of time thinking about it, behind bars. It use to be a fist fight was bad enough, now we have a new generation of inflicting as much damage to others as possible. Pathetic excues for a human. They must carry weapons waiting for a conflict…

I agree with comment 12 for the most part. yes, it does start at home. But the fact of the matter is that some kids arent going to be brought up properly. More directly the kids who are living in that atmostphere right now. Their are going to be kids that are exposed to drugs, violence and other criminal based things when they are at a young age. That is unavoidable and those are the kids who are growing up to be criminals. There is nothing we can do but rely on people to change and for the force to prosecute those who refuse to change or abide to the law.

There is a big problem in albany, im surprise that they had something like this in the paper specially in downtown albany. One nite i was riding threw south pearl where all the activity was going on. There was two woman fighting, i seen two officer taking there time to break up the fight (both of the women was white). Now if that was two black woman fighting uptown they would of quick broke it up. They both would of been in jail. Im upset with the mayor because he only cater to one little part of albany that is downtown. He have not made a change in albany. These kids need something to do like after school program or something for them to do. That why we have alot of crime here.

Honey, you sound like one of these people who thinks they are smart by saying lets see data. Data means nothing to those of us who grew up here, one murder is more then enough to realize that the police aren’t doing their job and that our children are in danger. The Albany Police is stuck in that “we think were smart” mentality where as they use data to say “Look were doing our job”. I say we see one murder as a call for change in Albany. Technocracy doesn’t work, it makes the problem worse by dehumanizing us into stats.

I agree with you Jakester but having seen it actually un-fold, due to the cops not being there, bouncers from all the bars on that strip had to get involved and that’s what caused it to get out of hand more than it should have. And if that truly is the case that people are going to be carrying weapons on them just because, then again this calls for more police prescence to stop these kind of things from getting out of hand.

Could have been a totally different outcome had the knife been a gun, we might be talking about people being dead.

What is it going to take for Chief Tuffey to realize that Albany has a serious crime problem? When something happens to someone close to him?? He’s got to be kidding!! I used to live in Albany right on Judson street and it was so drug and gang infested it was a shame and that was only two years ago then. Me and my kids went through hell.My kids have been jumped on more than one occassion and I mean to the point where I even told the police that if they tried to hurt me or my children again, I would do what ever it took for these people to understand that I do not want them hurting my babies. It didn’t make any sense to call the police since not only did they take their time coming but when they did, they really didn’t do anything when they got there. I use to see teenagers literally trying to rob people for their money or if not that, there was always a fight and you can bet there would be 20 or 30 more teenagers waiting to jump you. The adults were just as sickening as the kids. I hate that street with a passion. I hated it so much that if I had of stayed there any longer I seriously would of been doing time.
Mayor Jennings and Chief Tuffey need to get real with the crime problems that is seriously ruining Albany, NY. I was born and raised in Albany.It is a shame that the last thing I want is for my children to grow up in Albany.

Jon… I see your point. Do you think though that if the cops were there to break it up at the moment, that the people involved would eventually look each other up and do it somewhere else? These people are not normal… and I think all the Police in the area won’t change them, it will only be a temporary deterrent.

I’ll say it again people, being poor or growing up poor does not prevent you from know right from wrong, that’s no excuse. We grew up with not a whole lot of extras, some relatives grew up poor by anyones standards. My wifes’ family grew up very poor with not always enough food to eat. They all know right from wrong.

I think anyone who posted above should really take a second to think about the big picture. The Police can not be everywhere all the time, and I would like to know when did you people start to believe that police officers are responsible for peoples behaviors? I also like to state that when they do have to get in and get their hands dirty, you people think what they do is wrong. The police are damned if they do or dont in your eyes. The people who commit these crimes are the problem. These criminals are not always city of Albany residents. You people dont respect the Police, but now you want their help. The problem is the lack of morals and respect for people and their property. Call them when there is a real problem, get involved in your City, and stop hiding behind your doors, and turning a blind eye. I do however agree to an extent that the city needs to hire a few more cops, But it will not stop the criminals.

Glad to see everyone here is pretty much on the same page and not afraid to speak up. It’s absolutely ridiculous this type of violence is leaking into the Center Square neighborhood — possibly the last area of downtown that I consider liveable. Something needs to be done and quick.

The problem with Albany is its leadership. What the city needs is a Rudy Giuliani-type of administration. Stop making excuses and start cracking down. Jennings has done a sleek job of maintaining the city’s composure , but it’s really starting to show its age now.

Jenna, that is the problem, we only care when it hits the trendy white neighborhoods. Maybe if the suburanites, college kids and politicians who come here from all over the state decided to care about other parts of the city as apposed to downtown, Center Square and Pine Hills, maybe we might see some action. No, we aren’t worthy of the attenion of our own paper. I live on Clinton Ave and to you this is a horrible place, to us its home. We stick it out here and try to protect ourselves and our neighbors without any help. It gets me angry when I see people care little about my part of Albany and then once it hits the white sections, we see people start to care. Hint, this is why Albany is falling apart, we lack a community, were just a transient state Capital where people come in for a few years and move out leaving no bonds to the hood like I have to mine.

If the APD ever makes good on its promise to put crime mapping online, we’ll see what everyone knows anecdotally — i.e. that Center Square already has a lot of crime relative to other neighborhoods. That makes it the most “liveable” part of downtown Albany?

These weekend alcohol-fests on South Pearl are a prescription for disaster. There should be aggressive DWI-sweeps and zero tolerance of all quality of life related crimes down there to straighten things out. The police know who and where the gangs are–it’s time for a crackdown. Also, neighborhood foot patrols need to be routine.

On the other hand, the people who say the police officers can’t be everywhere at once and they do the best job they can are absolutely correct. Denying there is a crime problem doesn’t make it go away. Maybe they think Albany’s not bad compared to Schenectady. In any event, the City leadership is incompetent and is letting the crime problem fester and spread. Also, there is, indeed, a culture of violence and drugs infesting the youth of the community. Parental control whenever possible is part of the solution, along with swift and appropriate punishment. At the same time, a SENSE of community, as discussed by commenter #27, needs to be fostered. Youth programs, housing and employment opportunities and yes, maybe even charter schools where education of at-risk youth is taken seriously should all be part of the package.